The risk of things

In 2003 we did some research (for a magazine
article*) on the relative risk of death/injury from various
causes  to combat media scaremongering over issues such
as violent crime and AIDS. It's highly likely that comparative
risk between, say, death caused by transport-related accident
and death caused by crime is the same now as when we wrote
the article (since, as we've demonstrated elsewhere on Media
Hell, violent crime as a cause of injury/death has not
significantly risen).

The world is nothing like as crime-infested, dangerous and
damaging to your health as the Daily Mail would
have you believe [The following figures are for England
& Wales, 2002  from the Office for National Statistics]...

(ONS and World Health Organisation [WHO] categories for
death by assault seem to differ from police definitions of
homicide, so it's not clear how the above figure of 385 deaths
by assault fits with the recorded police homicide figure of
886. Possibly, if a heart attack occurs, that's categorised
as such under ONS/WHO categories, but as homicide by police
 but that's speculation on our part).

("AIDS" isn't a category used by ONS. They always
say "HIV Disease". As far as I'm aware, everybody
who has AIDS also has HIV Disease. But not everybody with
HIV Disease is classified as having AIDS.)

Miscellaneous death statistics (from 'Equinox', Channel
4 TV, 13/4/99):
 For every death from sexually transmitted diseases
there were 20 a century ago.
 For every death from infectious diseases there were
130 in the middle ages.
 In Britain each year approximately 20 people are electrocuted
by their alarm clock or bedside light.
 Another 20 are killed falling over as they get out
of bed.
 600 per year die from falling down the stairs.

Risk of crime

 Total recorded homicides (England & Wales, for
year 2001/2002): 886(Source: British Crime Survey 2001/2002)

 The homicide rate in Britain today is roughly the
same as in the mid-19th century.(The Independent, 25/9/1996)

 For every one person murdered today, ten were murdered
in the middle ages.(Equinox, Channel 4 TV, 13/4/99)

 One in three elderly women feels "very unsafe",
but fewer than one in 4,000 will be assaulted. (The Times,
11/9/96)

 Total recorded child abductions (England & Wales,
for year 2001/2002): 583(Source: British Crime Survey 2001/2002)

The number of children murdered by strangers (in Britain)
averages below 10 a year. For example, Home Office figures
show that the total in the decade from 1988-1997 was 57, an
average of six a year. (The Guardian, 2/8/99)

"The chances of a child aged one to four being killed
by a stranger are less than one in a million, and have fallen
by a third since 1988, while the risk to a child of five to
15 is even less." (Quoted from a front-page Guardian
story, 2/8/99, criticising scaremongering tactics of charities
such as NSPCC)

According to The Guardian, 12/7/2002, the average
person in Britain is burgled only once every 50 years. That
seems unbelievable, but is confirmed by the recorded police
figures (approx 200 domestic burglaries per 10,000 households
per year):

"Almost one-third of respondents (30 per cent) believed
that crime had risen 'a lot', and a further third felt that
crime had risen 'a little' over the previous two years. This
is despite the total number of crimes reported to the BCS
falling by 14 per cent between 1999 and 2001/02."

"There was a notable increase in the proportion believing
that crime had risen 'a lot' in the first quarter of 2002,
rising to 35% from 27% in the final three months of 2001.
This period witnessed a heightened degree of press coverage
on crime, which particularly focused on a claimed rise in
crime Readers of the national tabloid papers are much
more likely to consider the national crime rate to have increased
over this period, compared to broadsheet readers (42 per cent
versus 26 per cent)."

"Since 1995, the BCS has reported a fall in crime
at each survey. There was a 22 per cent fall in the crime
measured by the BCS over the last five years from 1997 to
2001/02"

"The increase in violent crime recorded by the police,
in contrast to the estimates from the BCS, appears to be largely
due to increased recording by police forces. Taking into account
recording changes, the real trend in violence against the
person in 2001/02 may have been a reduction of around five
per cent".

Injuries

From the Statistical Abstract of the United States, (1999
figures):
Number of injuries involving toilets: 56,424
Number of injuries involving lawn mowers: 70,640
Number of injuries involving ceilings and walls: 259,301
Number of injuries involving beds: 455,027

31,000 people per year in the US are injured by their "grooming
devices", compared to 16,670 injured by hatchets and
axes. (The Independent, 4/10/99)

Meanwhile, in Britain, 60 people a year are seriously injured
putting on their socks.(Equinox, Channel 4 TV, 13/4/99)